There was one more Cody Serial, but Aline Towne (Joan Gilbert) was the only repeat actor. Richard Crane, who would later be Space Ranger Rocky Jones, appeared in the sequel serial as well.

It’s the last chapter, can we stop calling him a new character?!?!

We open with the ‘electrocutions’. The stupid thugs are ordered to find other thugs to sell out Earth. Cody, of course, awakens as the thugs leave.

So, thugs never got around to killing Cody, but Cody killed Krog.

Ted, Joan, Cody and the Friendly Government Man (in black) plot an attack on Retik. As the meeting breaks up, Cody gets a call. It’s the bartender from Al’s Café. Yes, Graber and Daly went back to Al’s Café to recruit more muscle for the Moon Men. Of all the things in this Serial that just doesn’t make sense, why is this bugging me so? My willing suspension of disbelief has been pushed just a little too far here.

I mean really? I’ve never been in a fight in a restaurant, but if I was a thug, I wouldn’t be going back to the place where some low rent Iron Man and his little buddy kicked my ass no matter how good the Patty Melts are. Yes, it is bothering me that much.

Cody isn’t a very good hero. He and Ted had the drop and end up smashing Al’s again. Ted, of course, is put down quickly while Cody holds on a bit longer. And when both hero and sidekick are down, the thugs STILL DON’T KILL THEM! They dropped a stinking A-Bomb in a volcano, disrupted troop movements, caused massive damage but won’t put a bullet in the one person stopping them from succeeding? I get it, it is for kids, and seeing Cody and Ted shot execution style wasn’t something they would even dream of showing on screen in that time. But come on people, at least kick them while they are down. Break their ribs or hand or something.

A moderate speed chase in sedans over two land highway with guns a blazing. Ted hits the driver of the Thug car, it careens off a cliff, blowing up. “No chance of getting them out of that,” says Ted as he and Cody look down upon the flaming wreckage. So, I suppose they could see movement or heard screams, and the “heroes” choose to do nothing. To quote Joel, “Oh wow.”

So, our heroes have killed 3 men in the last two episodes, mainly because the villains wouldn’t kill them? I’m not sure what to do with this morality tale.

I would think the King of the Moon, or whatever Retik is, would bring more than one guard with him. The Moon is kind of a dump, you’d think there would be no end of volunteers to leave.

Heroes kill another man, but it’s just a Moon Man, so I don’t know if it counts.

Cody is somehow not burned alive by Retik’s rocket taking off. Good thing the Heroes have a truck ready with a death ray. Cody pulls the trigger and kills the last stinking Moon Man on Earth.

Cody gets a government contract to build more rockets, and Ted nearly impales himself on a model rocket! What fun, we have here!

I do have to say, I enjoyed the later chapters more than the riffed ones. These actually had a little bit different formulas to them. There were times the series dragged, overall, I’d give the series a 2 of 5. I could see myself watching the whole series again, but not anytime soon.

Not Ted, a generic cop. In a generic cop car. Deadly gas has no effect on generic cop. And of course, Graber and Daly think everyone is dead, without even looking in the window.

Joan and Cody steal the officer’s car to chase Graber and Daly. Surprisingly, Joan is allowed to drive in the chase.

Motorcycle cops add to the chase.

Wow, Generic cop has three kinds of gas grenades. Was that standard issue for cops back then? Cops, thinking Cody is a bad guy, shoot the gas grenade, forcing a crash with the villains. Cody, Joan and the Thugs are taken downtown. Cody, to save money by not hiring additional actors, convinces the cops to let the thugs go. Cody follows them back to the Moon Man base. Ted offers to help, but Cody wisely says no.

Reused take off sequence. I don’t think a flying man is all that subtle in terms of following a car. You see a man flying, you know it is Cody. Or at least Ted.

And he just seems to follow awfully close. Cody takes on the Thugs and Krog all by his lonesome. Retik is listening over the radio or something. It is a fairly long fist fight, almost 3 minutes. It ends with Cody and Krog possibly being electrocuted. What do you think?

I thought about watching Robot Holocaust, but I’m in a Cody kind of mood, so, let’s keep it going.

Mass Execution—sounds terrible.

We come back to the gun fight/space ship shoot. The thugs have started the avalanche, and are turning their attention to the rocket ship as Cody is buried under tons of rocks. The Rocket ship lands in the hubbub and Graber and Daly turn tail and run.

Cody of course, was protected by the mountain from the avalanche.

Krog calls Retik to report the failure to kill Cody or destroy his ship. Retik decides to come to Earth to oversee the operation. Graber and Daly are told to try and kill Cody and his team again.

I suppose it is a good thing that the thugs who would help an alien invasion are really incompetent.

Our Friendly Government Man (in black) tells Cody and Joan the Government is working on their own death ray. The Friendly Government Man (in black) ask Cody to recount everything important from Chapter 2 and 3, so Republic can have a nice cheap re-cap episode. Cody obliges with footage of him meeting Retik.

I almost wish the SOL crew had riffed this Chapter. This would have been a challenge, reriffing scenes they already had done. If this had been the season 3 serial, it would have fit right in with the repeated KTMA episodes.

Knowing that Republic reused footage from prior serials (Roy Barcroft, who played Retik, was cast to fit footage from another Republic Serial being used. Retik’s clothes were reused so the new and old footage would match), I wonder how much reused footage was rereused in this recap chapter.

It looks like we’re about to have another lab fight! I wouldn’t put it past Republic to reuse an earlier fight and play like it is new. Ah, no fight, just kinda pennyed them in. But Daly and Graber are reusing the gas in the vent ruse.

So, I know all you want to know is what happens after the film breaks. Here you go:

Cody and Company leave the moon with very little drama. No just kidding, as they take off, Joan dutifully goes for coffee. The captured Moon Man (who Cody sternly sent to his room) attacks Joan and Ted, still in the rocket man suit, with a stick or something. Big tussle as the pilot is knocked down before the ship leaves the moon orbit. Bravely, with Cody rolling around with the moon man, the pilot flies the ship on his knees. The moon man grabs a gun and while wrestling with Cody, the moon man is shot. The body is tossed into space as the crew sets for Earth. Joan never does get the coffee.

Meanwhile, Retik calls Krog and his two stupid thugs. Retik informs Krog and the stupid thugs of Cody’s impending return to Earth, and orders Cody’s Rocket Ship to be shot down. Retik threatens the crew that failure may mean death.

Cody pretends to do math to figure out a landing. Our thugs and Krog, coincidently, do the same math, and Graber and Daly show up with the death ray. The thugs fire and miss as the ship tries to land.

Cody, armed with only a pistol, jumps out of the ship to take on the death ray. The ship is running low on fuel. The thugs hit Cody, but he is able to fall safely, just as the ship has to turn and land, nearly out of fuel.

Cody steps out of the bushes and sneaks around to shoot at Graber and Daly. Gun fight ensues, and the thugs actually use the death ray on Cody. The crooks, needing to get rid of Cody before shooting the ship, shoot the cliff above Cody, causing an avalanche!

You would think a doomsday weapon would be more moveable. Again, if these thugs could do the ‘right’ thing and just kill Cody, we could be done with this story chapters ago.

Remember when going to the moon, wait, I think I used that joke before. Again, why the serials had to disappear. Too repetitive. The launch scene in this chapter is one of the better effect sequences in the serial.

Wouldn’t rockets from Earth be super easy to detect? It wasn’t like there were daily shuttles or anything like that.

Yep, very lucky break the one single moon man we see knows everything you need to know Cody. I know coincidence is the driving force behind most “kid” fiction, but this pushes even beyond that level of believability.

Is shooting a door holding dangerous materials really all that wise?

The recycled tank from Undersea Kingdom! It never gets its due for multiple MST3K appearances.

So, knowing the budgets, I bet this is footage of the tank chasing itself.

Busted airline? Attacking Tank? An amateur in Cody’s helmet? How will this turn out?

Watchability: 3 of 5. Not bad, this chapter had a change in formula, made it seem fresher. Well-paced and decent action. One of the best chapters so far.

Missing the Riffs: 4 of 5. The riffing was definitely getting weaker by this point in the serial.

I can see why the Serials were never seen through to the end on MST3K. Not only is there the same formula to every f’ing episode, but trying to get 12 episodes worth of credit jokes is a task too Herculean for the SOL crew.

Just grabs a gun and shoves it in his pants. Cody does love his risky behavior.

Cheaper to show a picture of the moon than to step outside and actually film the moon.

Krog looks like he is borrowing Bela’s lab from Bride of the Monster.

Cody is one of those guys who always finds a fight wherever he goes. He has a very punchable face, I suppose.

The Thugs have no qualms about dropping atomic bombs or blasting troop trains, but won’t finish Cody off when they get the chance?!?

This must be the ‘padding’ episode: lots of flying and driving. In this light, the Mads making the crew watch two chapters and this dull as dishwater chapter being one of them, is especially cruel.

Ah yes, the tiny little bomb chapter!

Watchability: 1 of 5. Like I said, this was the ‘padding’ episodes. Lots of driving/flying footage with music designed to make it seem like something was happening. The little bomb/laser fight at the end wasn’t enough action for the little kid in me.

Missing the Riffs: 2 of 5. So it wasn’t the time away. This is one that the SOL crew helps a lot, even though you could tell they were starting to get tired of the whole thing.